


Home Once Lost

by dark_brohood



Series: Home Once Lost [1]
Category: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Genre: Angst, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Bisexual Character, Bisexual Female Character, Blood and Gore, Bruma (Elder Scrolls), Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Emotional Hurt, F/M, Graphic Description, Hurt No Comfort, Imperial City (Elder Scrolls), Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Leyawiin (Elder Scrolls), Minor Canonical Character(s), Modern Character in Tamriel, Modern Girl in Tamriel, Oblivion Main Quest, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Water's Edge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:49:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29919906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dark_brohood/pseuds/dark_brohood
Summary: Calliope Menken thought she'd never get out of her abusive marriage, but after waking up from a car crash in a world that wasn't her own, she thanks whatever deity in this new world that brought her there and vows to do whatever she can to repay them. She starts to regret it, though, when she's imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit in a city she didn't know, and she finds herself on a journey she never thought possible.When she's tasked with finding the last heir to the Imperial Throne, she gets more than she bargained for when a Gate to her new world's Hell opens up in front of the city of Kvatch. With no way to fight and no way to defend herself, she miraculously survives and makes her way to the heir. But now, Calliope must decide whether to run from a role that has been thrust upon her or run from it as her her bruised heart starts to fall for the to-be Emperor.The Sun's Companion shall take his place in history, and Calliope will stand by his side.
Relationships: Female Hero of Kvatch | Champion of Cyrodiil/Martin Septim, Hero of Kvatch | Champion of Cyrodiil/Martin Septim
Series: Home Once Lost [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2200227
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue: Run

**Author's Note:**

> This fic will be a trilogy, and is set in the same universe as _Dii Zeymah, Dii Hokoron_ , though you won't be seeing Thayne as he's currently locked in a sarcophagus for another 200 years. I hope you enjoy Calliope, though, she's different than most OCs I've made for the Elder Scrolls. She's actually my first Modern Girl in Tamriel character, at least my first serious one.
> 
> This fic is going to contain some heavy contents. I myself haven't been through these, but I think they need to be said, and I wanted to work on a serious piece of fiction. If you can't handle that, then please leave. You have been warned.
> 
> The rest of the chapters are going to be longer I promise.
> 
> Tags will be updated as I write but the main ones are already up there.

Standing outside her house, Calliope Menken stared into the darkened windows, the wind blowing at her hair. From where her hand rested in her pocket, she twirled the ring around her finger, thinking of the day she had been given it. Her husband had promised to love her forever at the alter, and yet...

She moved to the front door and pulled her keys out of her pocket. She fiddled with them before unlocking the door. She pushed the door opened, stepped inside, and closed the door behind him.

The house was quiet, the lights turned off, as it was past midnight. Her head pounded from the alcohol she had drank not an hour beforehand with her friends, who had put her in a taxi home, none of them knowing her situation there.

Jackson was sitting on the bed, reading a book. He looked up as she entered their bedroom, before dogearing the page and putting the book down. 

The two of them stared at each other for a second before he sighed, rubbing his hands down his face.

"Where have you been?" he asked.

"Out with some friends," she said. "I told you I was going out."

"I didn't think you'd be gone this long."

"I lost track of time."

He stood up, and she took a step back. He sighed again, before reaching out and grabbing her, pushing her into the wall next to the door. She winced, the bruises on her back stinging with pain, and she felt tears prickling at the edges of her eyes.

"I told you," he said, his face millimetres from hers, "don't come home after twelve. It's dangerous, especially for a woman like you."

He grabbed her face and pulled her into a rough kiss, his teeth grinding with hers. She screwed her eyes shut, praying to God that this wasn't happening again as his hand wandered down to the hem of her shirt, starting to pull it up. She tried to push him off her body, but he was too strong. He lifted her shirt up, high enough so that he could grope at her breast under her bra, and she felt a bulge growing against her thigh through their pants. His other hand went lower, into the waistband of her jeans.

She couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't take the stress and the abuse and the beatings. It had been eating her up inside her entire marriage, ever since she had said _I do_ at their wedding.

He pulled her from the wall to take her to the bed, and she jerked her knee up between his legs. It landed directly in his groin, causing him to double over in pain, and she ran out of the room, almost slamming into the wall across from the door as she ran as fast as she could. She sprinted down the stairs, pulling her keys from her pocket as she heard Jackson following her, shouting for her to come back.

She threw the door open, pressing the button on her car's fob to unlock the car from the distance. She ran to the driver's side and entered the car, hitting lock as soon as the door closed. Her heart beat erratically in her chest as she got her keys into the steering wheel, turning it just as Jackson got to the car, slamming on the windows.

"Get out of the car, Calliope!"

She threw the car into reverse and put her foot on the pedal, the car rocketing backwards. As soon as the wheels were off the driveway, she threw the car into drive and drove forward, as fast as the car would take her. She could see Jackson shouting at her, getting into his own car and reversing out of the driveway. She turned the corner, hoping to get away from him as fast as she could.

Tears started flowing from her eyes the further and further she got from her house, relief filling her despite the fact that he was following her. She had lost him, she thought, several turns ago, and was now cruising down the main avenue of the Perth suburbs.

She wondered what it had been. She wondered if she didn't see the red light through the tears, or if she had been too distracted by the thought that she had just left her husband. Either way, she hadn't seen it. And either way, that car had hit the side of her own.

She felt the impact of it hitting her, her neck snapping to the side with the impact of the truck, the airbag deploying and smacking her in the face. She must have blacked out for a second, because the next thing she remembered was someone at her window, trying to get the door open to get her out. Looking out, she saw a firefighter was trying to save her.

But she didn't want to be saved. She didn't want to sit in a hospital bed so Jackson could come and find her. She didn't want to go back to him, to the abuse.

Whoever was listening to her pleas must have taken pity on her. As she felt the firefighter's hands grab at her to pull her out, the world faded to black, and the pain faded away.


	2. 1: Healing

Darkness. A deep, cold darkness was all Calliope could see, all she could _feel_ , all that surrounded her as she seemed to float through nothingness. She couldn't breathe, couldn't hear, couldn't touch. All she could do was peer into the dark and nothing void, and wait for whatever afterlife was actually true.

And then suddenly she could hear. A muffled voice surrounded her, both distant and somehow close. She couldn't tell what it was saying, but it was deep and rumbled with a power she had never felt before. As it spoke she felt the power course through her, fire and ice and lightning flowing through her veins as she started to scream.

Then her eyes opened, and she sat up, gasping. She heard a plate drop as she grumbled in pain, and she felt hands on her shoulders pushing her back onto a bed. Her heart rate started beating erratically, thinking they were Jackson's hands pushing her down to violate her, but she blinked away her blurry vision and saw it was a woman, who was now lightly touching her temple.

"Calm down, calm down," she said, her voice soft and soothing. She brushed away a strand of blonde hair that had gotten loose from her low bun and smiled down at her. "You need to keep lying down. The healer is just a couple houses down at the inn, if you give me a second I can go and get her."

"Wh-who are you?" Calliope asked, her voice raspy from her throat throbbing with pain. "Where am I?"

"My name is Kirsten Ulfgar. You're in Bleaker's Way. We're a small town south of Bruma."

"Bruma?" she muttered, then hissed in pain when Kirsten touched a cut on her forehead. She didn't now what or where Bruma was. "Why aren't I at the hospital? I was just in a car crash, I should be in a hospital--"

Kirsten pushed her back down on the bed as she heard a door open, and Calliope looked around at her surroundings for the first time. She was lying on a wooden bed that was pressed against a wooden divider that cut the one-room wooden house she was in in half. Next to the bed was a chest of drawers, and a small chest sat at the bottom of the bed, with an identical set up pushed against the outside wall opposite her. There was a faded rug that stretched between the two beds, as well as another rug underneath a chair and small table that sat in the corner.

A woman that could have been Kirsten's sister appeared from behind the wooden divider, with loose light brown hair that stopped at her shoulders. She was wearing a long dress that went to her feet, the bodice and skirt a dark green and the bust and long sleeves a dark blue, with a brown belt around her waist. It looked very old-fashioned, with puffy sleeves that ended just under her elbows. In fact, Kirsten was also wearing an old-fashioned dress. It was a dull brown, the colour of potato sacks, that went to her feet with short sleeves and a high neckline. Looking down, Calliope saw that she was wearing an identical dress to her.

"So, she's awake," the woman said, voice deeper and rougher than Kirsten's. "I'll go get the healer."

"Thank you," Kirsten said over her shoulder, and the woman left. Once they had heard the door to the house close, Kirsten focused back on Calliope. "Sorry about her, she's never had manners. Oh, where are mine? What's your name, and where are you from? Does your husband know where you are?"

She slowly sat up, slapping away Kirsten's worried hands. "Calliope Menken," she said, a dull pain throbbing through her entire body. "I'm from Perth. And I don't think so, thank God."

"I don't think I've ever heard of Perth," Kirsten said. "Where is it?"

She looked at her strangely. "... Australia. I was in Perth when I crashed my car."

"There's that funny word again," Kirsten said, shaking her head in confusion. "What's a car? And I've never heard of Australia."

"What's a-- have you been living under a rock? What happened to my clothes?"

"They were damaged, so I took them off. I tried to repair them, but I've never seen material like that. I've folded them and put them in a pile on the table, if you can repair it then you can keep them. Malyani managed to wash all the blood out of them without causing any more damage."

The door opened again, and the woman from before and another woman came in. The second woman had brownish-blonde hair pulled back in a plait, and she was wearing a fancy black and burgundy dress. She took Kirsten's place beside her bed and smiled a warm smile.

"Hello. I'm Isa Raman, I a healer from the Chapel of Talos in Bruma. What's your name?"

"Calliope."

"That's a pretty name. I've been healing you while you've been asleep, but I wasn't sure of the extent of your damage. I've never seen wounds like yours before."

"How long have I been out?"

"Three nights," the woman in the blue and green dress said. "You've been taking up my bed, I've had to stay at the inn the last couple nights."

"Ignore her," Kirsten said, glaring at her. "As I said, she doesn't know manners."

She rolled her eyes.

"Now that you're awake," Isa said, ignoring the other two women, "I can heal you up a bit more and take you back to Bruma to finish. If you'd prefer, though, I can finish it up here, though it'll take a bit longer."

"Though if you stay, you're going to have to help out around the farm," she said. 

Kirsten whacked her on the arm.

"Once you can walk properly."

Kirsten went to whack her again when Calliope said, "I don't mind. I'm grateful for your help, and I'd love to help you in return. My aunt owns a farm, I sort of know what to do."

"Good. Because it cost a lot of gold for her to come here."

 _Gold?_ she thought in bewilderment.

There was something wrong with these people. They didn't know what a car was or what Australia was. They didn't know _cotton_ , at least not processed cotton. And there accents were all strange, like they were Scandinavian or something. Had she somehow found her way into an Amish complex while she was unconscious? In _Norway?_

Isa raised her hand and a soft yellow glow surrounded it. Calliope's eyes widened, the urge to scream crawling its way up her throat, but the panic that was now coursing through her veins was keeping her still-sore throat closed. She leant away from her hand as she brought it close, as far as she could, but the other women didn't seem worried by the fact that Isa had just _cast magic_. Like in a movie or game. _Was she in a game? Was that even possible?_

Isa hovered the glow over Calliope's head, and she instantly started to feel a warmth in her head, seeping down to the rest of her body, the pain fading away. After a couple seconds, the glow disappeared, and the pain came back but not as strong as it had been.

"Woah," she breathed, blinking. She'd never felt anything like that before.

"I can only do a little bit at a time," Isa said, lowering her hand. "It'll be about two more days before you'll be healed completely. For now, I'll come and heal you every couple hours. If you can walk, you can move to the inn, give Ulrika her space back. I'm sure she'd appreciate it."

"I really would," Ulrika said, standing with her arms crossed over her chest.

Slowly, Calliope moved her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. After a couple seconds of dizziness, she nodded, taking a deep breath and smiling at Isa and Kirsten.

"Come," Kirsten said, taking her arm. "The others have been worried about you, too, especially Satha. She's the one that found you lying on the road."

Calliope nodded. "Lead the way."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you the chapters were going to be longer than the prologue.


	3. 2: Bleaker's Way

Calliope wasn't sure what she expected when she left the small house. Maybe more people, definitely a bigger town. There was a line of houses in front of her and then there was an open plain, and she could see in the distance white stones jutting out of the land, though she couldn't see what it was. She couldn't see anyone around, maybe because the sun was low on the horizon, turning the clouds orange and red.

Kirsten motioned for Calliope to follow her, Ulrika staying behind and Isa heading for the inn, and she followed the blonde woman down the hard-packed dirt street, and she froze in... she didn't know. Shock? Surprise? She thought the magic Isa had cast couldn't make her even more shocked, but standing on the road, laughing to each other, were a man and a woman with dark greyish-blue skin. The man was wearing a red button-down shirt that looked like a fancy tunic, and brown pants and shoes, his greying brown hair that went to his shoulders tucked behind a very long and pointed ear. The woman was wearing an olive green shirt and tight dark purple pants, her dark brown hair tied in a high bun, which showed her own very pointed ears.

They were elves, they had to be. And that meant that Calliope was either dead or dying or having an extremely vivid dream. She'd wake up soon and she'll be in the hospital with Jackson standing over her. She shivered inwardly. That thought made her wish this was all real, just so she wouldn't be back in Jackson's clutches.

Kirsten waved at the two elves-- _elves!_ \--and they turned to the two of them. Calliope's heart skipped a beat as their blood red eyes locked on hers, waving back and starting to make their way over. They met halfway, Calliope somehow able to make her legs move.

"You're awake," the woman said, smiling. "I'm Satha Dalvilu, this is my Uncle Redas. I'm glad you're okay."

"You're the one that found me on the road?" Calliope asked her.

She nodded. "Yes. I thought you were dead when I found you. There was so much blood... but it seems Arkay has his eyes on you, and wanted you to live."

"Arkay?"

Redas tilted his head to the side in confusion. "The god of life and death?"

Her eyes widened. They had different gods, which she was expecting, she just wasn't expecting them to be mentioned so soon after she had 'woken up'. The dream already had some lore, which was good. "Oh, yes, right. Sorry, my head's still a bit muddled from my injuries."

"How _did_ you get injured?" he asked. "We've been trying to figure it out but we can't think of anything."

"Uh..." she thought quickly. She knew that cars didn't exist--Kirsten had no idea what they were--so she'd have to improvise. "I was, uh... thrown off a horse. Which then trampled me."

Satha placed a hand on her chest, shaking her head sadly. "Oh, you poor thing. A friend of mine that visits sometimes was trampled by horses once. He's from Cheydinhal."

Calliope didn't know where that was, but she nodded sadly with her. "It definitely hurts. The healer said she's going to be here for the next two days. I'm happy to help wherever I can to repay all your help."

"You're going to have to talk to my father about that," she said. "He and Kirsten's father run the town together."

"Father's visiting Aleswell, and Nivan is probably already asleep. He's an old Dark Elf," Kirsten added, speaking to Calliope. "He's seven hundred years old."

"Oh, wow," Calliope said, using all her willpower to not shout _What the fuck_ to them, because seven hundred years ago the Black Death was killing a third of the population of Europe. Which she guessed didn't exist in her dream world. But that was still a very, very long time.

"I'll set you up a room at the inn," Kirsten said. "I run the place so it's fine, and you don't have to pay. It's my treat, and I don't want to throw you out on your ass after all we've done to help you."

Calliope felt like she was going to cry. Everyone in Bleaker's Way was so nice, so much different than her waking life. She guessed it was because it was all in her head, but she couldn't help but feel like these people were the kindest she had ever met.

"Thank you," she said, hugging Kirsten.

Kirsten seemed surprised by the gesture, but hugged her back. "It's no problem, honestly. Come on."

They bid the elves goodbye, and headed towards the building Isa had entered. There was a sign outside the building that read 'Bleaker's Way Goodwill Inn'. The inside was warm and homey, a small fire in the fireplace against the far wall. Directly across from the door was a small counter, and to the left was a dining room with tables and chairs, three people sitting at the tables and chatting, eating warm food and drinking out of tankards. One was Isa, another was one of the grey-skinned Dark Elves, like Satha and Redas, one was a woman wearing a tan corset over a tan shirt and brown skirt. The third person was a human man, who was bald on the top and wearing a fancy tunic and pants. To the right was a staircase leading to a second floor.

"Would you like some food?" Kirsten asked, going behind the counter and pulling out a ledger.

"Yes, please."

She nodded, and wrote something in the ledger before closing it and putting it back under the counter. She told Calliope to follow her, and led the way up the stairs. Upstairs were three doors, and she was led to the last room. She pulled a key out of her pocket and put it in the lock, opening the door to a small room. Inside there was a sleeping bag on the floor, with a chest of drawers next to it, the room only slightly wider than the door was.

She held the key out to Calliope. "It's not much, but a roof over your head is better than none. I'll come and get you once the food is ready."

She nodded, taking the key, and Kirsten went back downstairs. Calliope entered the room, placing the key on the dresser and opening the drawers. They were empty.

She grabbed the key again, closing the door and locking it behind her, and went downstairs. She told Kirsten she was going to get her things, and she nodded as she left the room. She made her way back to the house she had woken up with and knocked on the door. A couple seconds later, Ulrika opened the door and let her in, pointing her to her things. They were resting on the table, just like Kirsten had said. Calliope thanked her, and left the room.

She hoped her phone was there.

She got back to the inn and climbed the stairs. She unlocked the door to her room and entered, closing the door behind her and placing her things on the dresser. She grabbed the jumper and let it fall open. It wasn't too bad, but there were some holes that weren't there before. That wouldn't bother her, though. She dropped it on the floor next to her and grabbed the shirt. It was one of her favourite shirts; it was oversized and light grey, with a dark grey Dalek from _Doctor Who_ appliqued on the front. The bottom of it had been ripped, and there were holes in it. She could see a couple stitches where Kirsten had attempted to repair it, in one of the bigger holes to the side of where the belly button would be. She appreciated it. She didn't know how to sew, so it was a better job than she would have done. She dropped the shirt and picked up her jeans. These were the worst. Half of one of the legs was almost ripped off, and there were several large holes in it. Her shoes were still damp, but looked relatively untouched. 

It was surprising a car crash could do this much damage to clothing.

Her phone had been nestled between the shirt and the jumper, and she picked it up. She turned it on and saw it had sixty-eight percent left. She hadn't gotten to charge it since she got back from the pub with her friends, and with what happened with Jackson... she shook her head, trying to shake it out of her mind. She didn't need to think about that. This was a dream, and dreams were supposed to be an escape from reality.

She unlocked the phone and saw she had no reception, which wasn't surprising. She was in the middle of nowhere in a town of about twelve people, and even that might be more than there are. She locked the phone and put it in the drawer, not wanting anyone to see it more than they already had. She wasn't about to explain technology to elves.

There was a knock on the door, and she opened it to see Kirsten standing there.

"Food's ready," she said. "It's waiting for you downstairs."

"Thank you."

Calliope grabbed the keys and locked the door on the way out. She didn't have a pocket or anything to put it in, so she put it in her shoe, which had been given to her on the way out of Ulrika's house, and followed Kirsten downstairs.

She sat down at one of the tables, and Kirsten placed the plate and a tankard in front of her. The food was crab, which tasted a bit different than any she'd ever tried, but it was nice. There was also some cheese with it and a small pile of rice. The tankard had some kind of alcohol in it, which she desperately needed, and she guzzled it down, asking for some more and what type it was. She said it was cheap wine.

After she had eaten and Kirsten had taken away the plate and tankard, Calliope said she was going to go up to her room. Kirsten bid her a good night, and she climbed the stairs to her room. Once she was in her room, the door locked and the key safely on the dresser, Calliope climbed into the sleeping bag. Almost immediately, she fell asleep.


	4. 3: A Helping Hand

Calliope woke up in a cold sweat, gasping for breath. She tried to get the images of the car crash out of her mind, but they replayed over and over again, her going through the red light and the car crashing into her, the firefighter trying to drag her out, the fear of her going to the hospital where her husband would find her.

But as she sat up on the floor, the sleeping bag pooling at her waist, in the small room Kirsten had lent to her, she knew this was her life now. This wasn't some elaborate dream her head had made up. She'd never had a dream within a dream, and she doubted she was starting now. The people she had met and interacted with were just as real as she was. The magic Isa had used was real. The elves with the dark greyish-blue skin were real.

She started crying. Relief flooded through her, knowing she was never going to have to deal with her husband's abuse again. He couldn't hurt her here, couldn't force himself on her when he wanted to have sex and she said _no_. She was never going to be terrified in her own home again.

She stood up and left the room, forgoing her shoes, and stepping over a small pile of clothes that Kirsten must have put outside her door. She went down the stairs, the dining room empty, and out the front door.

The sky was a dazzle of stars, shining brighter than she ever thought stars possible. They twinkled from where they floated in space, stretching as far as she could see as she stared up into the abyss and found beauty. Two ginormous moons hung in the sky, one larger than the other, the second moon hiding behind the bigger one slightly. They were larger than she ever thought a moon could be, but there they hung in the night sky, illuminated brightly, sitting among the stars.

She'd never seen anything like it her entire life.

"Are you alright?" someone asked.

Calliope looked away from the sky for a moment to see Satha walking towards her, before looking back up at the stars. "It's beautiful."

Satha hummed, stopping next to her and looking up. "It is. It's a wonder that such beauty can live in a world with such strife."

 _So this place isn't that different after all_ , Calliope thought.

"You should get some more sleep," Satha told her. "Dawn is in a couple hours, and Malyani will no doubt put you to work."

She nodded, and went back to her room, locking the door behind her. She stared out the small window at the sky for a couple more minutes before she climbed back into the sleeping bag and went back to sleep.

* * *

Calliope was awoken by a knock on the door, and Kirsten saying through the wood that breakfast was ready. Groaning, Calliope pushed the sleeping bag off with her feet, and stretched the tiredness from her limbs. She was still wearing the dress she had woken up in the day before, but at least Kirsten had given her some clothes.

She unlocked the door, grabbed the pile off the floor, and locked the door again, leaving the key in the lock. She pulled the dress over her head, and looked at the pile she had been given. There were two dresses and some work clothes, so she decided to put on the tan shirt and matching pants. She pulled on her shoes from the day before, and put the rest of the clothes in the top drawer of the room's dresser. She left the room and headed downstairs.

Breakfast consisted of two poached eggs with buttered bread and a tankard full of the same cheap wine that had been served for dinner the night before. Calliope wouldn't be surprised if all the water was contaminated by something, and that's why they didn't serve water. 

After breakfast, Kirsten introduced Calliope to Malyani Dalvilu, who ended up being the Dark Elf she had seen in the dining area the night before. Malyani led her to the small farm just outside the city. It was obvious that the farm was only used to feed Bleaker's Way. Any excess was probably kept in storage until it was needed.

For the next two days, Calliope worked those fields alongside Malyani and Satha. The rest of the village--she had learned there were nine people in total--did other things throughout the town to make sure it continued to run. During those two days, Isa healed her every couple hours, and by the time she left for Bruma Calliope felt better than she ever had. She was even sure she'd cured her anemia.

Once the two days were over, Calliope wasn't sure if she wanted to stay in Bleaker's Way or leave to explore the world she had found herself in. She didn't have any money, except for a few gold pieces she had been given for working the farm, though she wasn't sure if it was a normal wage or not. She doubted it. She also didn't want to stick around for too long, living off their goodwill. She hated having to rely on someone else, and didn't want to be a burden on anyone.

The morning of her fourth day there, she decided that the next day, she would go forth into the world, of which she still didn't its name. She was too afraid to ask. She had seen a city while she was working in the farm, which had a tower that you could see for miles in the centre of it. She was sure she could find something--anything--there.

She told Kirsten of her decision, and while the blonde woman would be sad to see her go, she understood her reasoning. Calliope promised another day of hard work, though her muscles were starting to get sore and she was more exhausted than she'd ever been in her life. She was glad to have something to do, though. Her phone's percentage was slowly getting lower and lower, as she read a couple chapters of a book she had thankfully downloaded from iBook every night. She wasn't sure how long it was going to last, or if she was ever going to be able to charge it again.

* * *

The next morning, Calliope woke with the sun. She got dressed in a russet coloured dress Kirsten had given her, and packed all her belongings into a sack Satha had given her the night before. She secured it around her waist, and went downstairs. Kirsten was standing behind the counter, her back turned to her, and she placed the key to the room she had been staying in on the counter.

Kirsten turned around. In her hand were some supplies for Calliope. She rested them on the counter, smiling as she took the key.

"Just some things I thought you'd need," she said as Calliope started digging through the pack.

Inside there was food and drink for a three day journey, which was how long it would take to get to what Kirsten had called the Imperial City, unless she wanted to swim across Lake Rumare, and even that would take a day. It would be best to just walk. There was also another set of clothes, ones she could wear on the road, and a dagger.

She pulled the dagger out, holding it from the hilt. "I don't know how to use this."

"Just stab anything that tries to attack you," Kirsten said. "But you should run if you find yourself face to face with a wild boar. They're strong, but they're slow."

"Thanks for the advice."

She managed to get the dagger onto her belt. It felt foreign, a heavy weight on her hip she wasn't used to. She put the supplies in her pack and thanked her for the last time. They bid each other goodbye and Calliope left the Bleaker's Way Goodwill Inn. She waved goodbye to everyone she passed on her way out of the village. She walked down the dirt road to the cobblestone road, her heart pounding in her chest as she started on her journey.


End file.
